RED CONSPICUOUS IN PLUMAGE 465 



This species is said never to girdle the trees as does 

 the Eastern variety, and to be far less harmful. 



408. LEWIS WOODPECKER. — Asyndesmus lewui. 

 Family : The Woodpeckers. 



Length: 10.50-11.50. 



Adults: Upper parts, lower tail-coverts and thighs uniform dark me- 

 tallic greenish ; face dark crimson ; chest and collar round back of 

 neck grayish ; under parts, sides, and flanks pinkish red, with plu- 

 mage coarse and hair-like. 



Toung : Like adults, but without red on head and without collar ; under 

 parts more grayish than pinkish. 



Geographical Distribution: "Western United States, from the Black Hills 

 and Eocky Mountains to the Pacific. 



California Breeding Range : Along the Sierra Nevada south to Fort 

 Tejon ; also in the valleys of the Salinas and the San Benito. 



Breeding Season : May and June. 



JVest: Excavations made mostly in pines and dead stumps, from 8 to 100 

 feet from the ground. 



Eggs: 5 to 9 ; white. Size 1.03 X 0.80. 



The Lewis Woodpecker, although so handsome, is the 

 most silent and stupid of all its race. Making no at- 

 tempt to defend its nest, it will sit on a limb of the tree 

 and look on while its home is rifled, uttering no sound 

 and seeming not to care. It uses the same excavation 

 year after year, and will sometimes lay a second set of 

 eggs in the same hole from which the last has just been 

 stolen. The nest is usually high in a tree, and is some- 

 times thirty inches deep with an entrance two and a half 

 inches in diameter. In summer this Woodpecker is resi- 

 dent in certain localities along the Sierra Nevada south 

 to Fort Tejon, and breeds in the open country along this 

 range. In the winter it may be found nearly throughout 

 the State. ^^^ 



